Wednesday, December 03, 2008

MINT – Milan International Antiques and Modern Art Fair - the venue. The Mint Art Fair of Antiques, Modern and Contemporary Art was in its third edition, last November. It has become an appointment for Italian and International sophisticated art lovers. The Fair took place in a temporary structure in Piazzale Cannone just behind the Sforzesco Castle, in a fascinating scenography which has as its backdrop the castle walls and the Arco della Pace in Parco Sempione. The Mint, is an elegant exhibition that matches antiques and modern art, period pieces of rare quality and contemporary design.

Seen at Mint: Robilant + Voena – London and Milano. A general view of the Robilant and Voena stand. The stand epitomizes the Mint Fair because the gallery deals in antique and modern works of art. In the foreground a painting by Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662-1740) a Flemish landscape painter of the Baroque, a landscape with two figures, oil on canvas. In the background on the wall is a giant C-print photograph by Candida Hofer,Musee du Louvre Paris XII, 2005. And, a set four gloss laminated polyurethane resin stools, Nekton, 2006 made by Established & Sons, from the Seamless Collection by Zaha Hadid.

Seen at Mint: Bottegantica di Savoia – Bologna. A signed and dated, Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931), Portrait of the Marchesa Franzoni, 1892, oil on canvas.

Seen at Mint: Salamon & C. – Milano. Entrepeneur, Marina Salamon stopped by her cousin, Lorenza Salamon’s stand to have a look at this painting by Marzio Tamer.

Seen at Mint: Ajassa Arte Antica Cinese – Torino. Terracotta with glazing, horses from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In the background a portrait of a Chinese dignitary, mixed media on paper, early Eighteenth Century.

Seen at Mint: Studio La Citta – Verona. Hiroyuki Masuyama’s J.M.W. Turner, Cockmouth Castle, 1830, 2008, lightbox LED edition 2/5. Hiroyuki Masuyama’s light-boxes are not simply photographic reproductions of the paintings and watercolors of William Turner, they are instead a conceptual operation on the work of this great English artist.

Seen at Mint: Galleria Silvano Lodi & Due – Milano. Antique dealer, Maurizio Bellini stops in front of a crocodile painting by Saverio Polloni at the Galleria Silvano Lodi & Due stand.

Cod. 04564, 2007, oil on canvas, painted by Saverio Polloni. Polloni’s animals pose life-sized in half or full-length portraits or more speculatively, a detail of their figure is extrapolated to suggest an abstract perceptive interpretation.

Seen at Mint: Enrico Lumina – Bergamo. A View of the Grand Canal in Venice painted by Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) painted in 1785.

Seen at Mint: Alessandro Bulgini. Photographer, Alessandro Bulgini sits in front of his photograph of The Palace of Juriconsults, Milano, 2008. Bulgini is one of nine contemporary photographers whose works were auctioned during Mint. The photographers were asked to create a work inspired by three sole views of Milan painted by Bernardo Bellotto (1720-1780), the Italian urban landscape painter. Thereby creating comparisons between antiquity and modernity.

Seen at Mint: Il Quadrifoglio – Milano. A detail of a celestial globe by Vincenzo Corovelli (1650-1712), Venice.

A bronze statue, early 20th Century sits in front of one of a pair of XVII Century mirrors with inlaid gilded wood frames.

Seen at Mint: Photo & Contemporary – Torino. Valerio Tazzetti sits in front of a George Rousse diasec print called Durham, 2006.

Seen at Mint: Giuseppe Piva – Arte Giapponese – Milan. Giuseppe Piva poses with an exceptional Tozuki-nari Kawari Kabuto, of the mid Edo period (1615-1867), in the shape of a soft headgear fixed on the back with a knot.

Armorfrom the Date clan, NI-MAI-DO Gusoku of the Edo Period 1615-1867, signed Joshu Ju Saotome Lechika. This early armor shows all the features typical of equipment used in battle: hanbo to fix a heavy kabuto, small sode and a dô with no metal kanamono.

Seen at Mint: Guido Bartolozzi Antichita’ – Firenze. In the Foreground one of a couple of terracotta French mid eighteenth Century sculptures representing a sphinx with woman head and a putti dancing. In the background, an English Mortlake tapestry, 1735 in silk and wool.